I have spent all evening last night and the last 4 hours reading through my 1995 reprint hardback (picked it up for £2 and a coffee!) and, although it has less material than some of those described, it is still HUGE and would be a bargain at ten times the price I paid. To describe it as anything less than encyclopaedic would be a bit mean! However, it has highlighted a few issues for newcomers to magic (I studied for a couple of months, then had to stop to finish my degree, so I'm basically back to square 1)
1. I will say it again - the book is HUGE. It's a bit intimidating, compared to the royal road, which neatly works you through the book (I've misplaced mine
). However, each section of the book is a self-contained area, and does work through a fairly natural progression of techniques and effects. It even covers getting the same or similar effect with a different method - very important for when punters ask for more!2. Some of the tricks are certainly aimed at beginners (as they should be) and I actually quite wrongly labelled a trick as being a bit naff before I tried it in front of a mirror. In actual fact, the simplest tricks can often be the most effective, and so I wound up impressing myself just 10 minutes ago!
3. Choose a section you want to do. This is not a book you just work through - it's HUGE. I have recently lost my cards to a particularly excessive drinking game (which proved to be a useful place to show off a couple of tricks!) so I won't bother even looking at the cards section yet. I'm interested in cards, coins and mental magic, so for me right now, a lot of the book is a bit useless.
I think this book is very much a resource material. There are some truly beautiful effects in it, and many of them are completely new to me. I don't think it will be my main area of study (unlike Bobo's, RRTCM etc). However, it will be a reference guide, a revision guide and it will be good for picking up an area of magic before investing in it. It's also a really good read - I'm enjoying just reading the thing, which isn't so much the case with some other texts, which are strictly worded for high concentration and study.
Much love
Paul (a returning newcomer)
